Yamaha Racing crowned two AUSX Supercross Championships over the weekend at the fifth and final round of the national championship in Adelaide.
Monster Energy Yamalube Yamaha’s Ryder Kingsford and GYTR Yamaha Junior Racing’s Blake Bohannon both won their respective championships on the weekend, but it wasn’t without some drama and excitement along the way in an eventful season finale.Kingsford landed in Adelaide with a twelve-point gap over his nearest rival, Alex Larwood in second. The maths was pretty simple. Kingsford didn’t need to win, but he needed to stay with a couple of positions of Larwood in each of the two finals to secure his first professional championship but that was easier said than done on the tight layout the riders faced.
The weekend started well, and Kingsford fired off the fastest laps in practice and in qualifying to take P1 and the all-important confidence boost heading into the final two races. But that went out the window in race one when he went down early in the race and was left outside the top ten and not much time to claw has many points back as possible.
He put his head down and began to work his way back through the field. In just six laps he made his way back to third place, directly behind Larwood and the damage control had been done. Now the gap was ten points and anything inside the top five would see him crowned as the 2025 champion.
But, again, it wasn’t that simple. Kingsford suffered from a poor start and was trying to hustle his way through when he moved into fourth and then fell from his machine. He was left reeling as the pack sped away. With Larwood in the lead, and Kingsford dropping like a rock, he needed to regain his composure and get himself back inside the top five.
With two laps to go, he made his way to fifth, then was able to sneak a late race pass into fourth and a wave of relief swept across both him and the team as he sailed over the finish line. Kingsford is the 2025 SX2 champion and the first time an Australian has won the SX2 division since Jay Wilson in 2018, in the Yamalube Yamaha team.
“Well, I made that a lot harder than it needed to be,” he said with a smile on the podium. “My starts were terrible, and it doesn’t matter how much speed you have, on a track like this with the starts I got, it was never going to be easy. But thankfully I had some points up my sleeve, knew what I needed to do and even with a few hiccups, I was able to get it done.
“The team have done a great job all year and it’s been an amazing season for me. I finished second in the ProMX championship and then won the AUSX championship, so things couldn’t have been much better. The boys kept working all the way to the end and I made them work even more during the last final when I was on the ground.
“Thanks to everyone who supported me this year. I grateful for the help and will look back in 2025 with amazing memories,” Kingsford ends.
After the first four rounds, you would assume Blake Bohannon claiming the 85cc championship would be a bit of a formality. He has been the form rider in the class and has dominated the opening rounds to the point where he had a thirty-point margin coming into Adelaide.
But that’s why we race as nothing is taken for granted and it's never over until the finish line is crossed as Bohannon gave his family and friends heart attacks during the final two motos of the season.
Like Kingsford, Bohannon started the day in sensational form with good lap speed and a victory in his heat. It then went sideways. A first turn crash, then another big fall sent him to the back of the pack and in some pain. With no helmet peak and not a lot of time, Bohannon did what he could to get back into the race but could get back to twelfth place.
The points had tightened considerably and adding to the drama was a bent bike and a sore wrist that required some medical attention.
He fired off to a better start in race two and was trying to move into the top three in the second corner when his wheels went from under him and he hit the ground again. He was at the pack of the field again and needed to be inside the top ten to secure the championship.
Bohannon made the move into ninth in the final stages of the race and claimed Yamaha’s second championship for the weekend.
“I’m glad to get that one out of the way,” Bohannon offers. “Everything that could go wrong did and there wasn’t a lot of time between the races to get things fixed. My wrist hurt, my bike needed some work, and I just needed to stay off the ground.
“Then I crashed in the second corner. I was trying to go up the inside of someone, and it just slide from under me, then Jaggar Townley hit my bike as he had nowhere to go.
“But I’m so happy to win the series and had an awesome time racing it. I hadn’t spent much time on a supercross track before round one, but I love it know and thank you to the organisers for having an 85cc class.
“I also want to thank GYTR Yamaha Junior Racing, my Mum and Dad for everything they do and the rest of the riders for racing supercross with me.”
AUSX Results
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AUSX Results
SX2
1st Ryder Kingsford – 191 (Monster Energy Yamalube Yamaha)
2nd Alex Larwood – 188
3rd Rhys Budd – 149
4th Lux Turner – 137 (Monster Energy Yamalube Yamaha)
5th Jake Cannon – 128
6th Wilson Todd – 108
7th Shane McElrath – 106
8th Jai Constantinou – 99
9th Kaleb Barham – 96
10th Travis Olander – 96
85cc
1st Blake Bohannon – 121 (GYTR Yamaha Junior Racing)
2nd Ollie Birkitt – 115
3rd Luis Cannon – 106
4th Deegan Fort -100 (GYTR Yamaha Junior Racing)
5th Zander Kruik – 96
6th Nate Perrett- 94
7th Tyson Williams – 87
8th Jaggar Townley – 87
9th Declan Smart – 77
10th Dylan Gromball - 68